Couple Goes Viral for Olive Garden Engagement Photos: ‘Italy Vibes'

Joseph Lamour
Updated ·3 min read
91

Love is a many splendored thing, and for one couple, love is proving to be just as splendid as never-ending breadsticks.

On July 27, Tennessee-based photographer Shea Cravens posted a TikTok of fiancés Carlsey Bibb and Caden Mills, a couple getting married this October, according to BuzzFeed.

Couple Carlsey Bibb and Caden Mills at their Olive Garden photoshoot. (Courtesy Hunter LaShea Photography)
Couple Carlsey Bibb and Caden Mills at their Olive Garden photoshoot. (Courtesy Hunter LaShea Photography)

Bibb and Mills recently tapped Cravens for an engagement photoshoot and wanted a special introduction as husband-and-wife-to-be. So, they agreed to quite a quirky suggestion. Cravens convinced them to stage an Italy-esque photoshoot at dawn, but didn’t board a private jet to Lake Como to do so. Instead, they agreed to a 6 a.m. photoshoot in front of Olive Garden.

“When you want Italy Vibes for your engagement photos, but you live in Tennessee … so you take your photos at Olive Garden,” reads the text on a TikTok posted by Cravens, who owns wedding photography business Hunter LaShea Photography. That video went viral, garnering 254,400 views on TikTok and hundreds of thrilled comments both on TikTok and elsewhere on social media.

“This is genius,” read a comment on the photographer’s Instagram.

“This is SO creative and stunning!!!” commented another Instagram user.

Couple Carlsey Bibb and Caden Mills at their Olive Garden photoshoot. (Courtesy Hunter LaShea Photography)
Couple Carlsey Bibb and Caden Mills at their Olive Garden photoshoot. (Courtesy Hunter LaShea Photography)

“I love this so much,” said influencer Brooke Barry on TikTok.

“You are the best!!!!” said bride-to-be Bibb on Instagram. “So so glad you had this idea!”

While many of the comments under the post captioned, “Tennessee but with a little italy spice,” were positive, some commenters said that they weren’t fans of the unorthodox engagement photo location. (You can’t please everyone!) In response, Cravens responded to some of the haters, defending the location as a fun and atypical way to announce a couples’ upcoming nuptials.

Couple Carlsey Bibb and Caden Mills at their Olive Garden photoshoot. (Courtesy Hunter LaShea Photography)
Couple Carlsey Bibb and Caden Mills at their Olive Garden photoshoot. (Courtesy Hunter LaShea Photography)

“Bestie please we can all tell its Olive Garden,” said one commenter on TikTok, to which Cravens replied, “I obviously wasn’t trying to hide that it’s Olive Garden.”

For their part, fans on the side of the tongue-in-cheek engagement photoshoot helped defend the idea by offering words of encouragement and a message to the trolling.

“Whole time coulda fooled me… I thought you were in Italy…,” said one TikTok comment. “Sooooo any haters can take a seat at red lobster.”

As for where this idea came from, Cravens said she’s wanted to do a photoshoot like this for a while.

Couple Carlsey Bibb and Caden Mills at their Olive Garden photoshoot. (Courtesy Hunter LaShea Photography)
Couple Carlsey Bibb and Caden Mills at their Olive Garden photoshoot. (Courtesy Hunter LaShea Photography)

“A little over a year ago I had the idea of doing a session at Olive Garden, I mentioned it to some friends but never got around to doing it,” Cravens wrote in an Instagram caption. “Fast forward to today, it finally happened and I am so happy with the outcome.”

Bibb and Mills were the lucky couple that she was able to convince. The rest is never-ending pasta history, if you will.

According to the couple's wedding website, they won't be getting hitched at the Olive Garden, but regardless of when they return, when they're there, they're family.